Undergraduate

Futures for English Majors

A message from Professor Kenneth Gross, former director of Undergraduate Studies in English:

In the spring of 2012, I sent inquiries to all former UR English
majors in the Alumni Office’s records, asking them to respond to three
broad questions: First, what are you doing now, what is your work and
life like? Second, how do you think your work in English at UR stayed
with you, what tools has it given or memories provided? Lastly, what
are you reading? I got close to two hundred responses, ranging from
the class of 1949 to the class of 2011, many with detailed stories and
reflections. The letters confirmed what we in the department have long
known about the wide array of life and career paths our majors choose.
They also made starkly clear certain things that many current and
former majors shared—a love of the word, a deep pleasure in human
language and a sense of responsibility to it, a confidence in their
powers of expression, an appetite for reading and thinking about what
they read, and patience in analysis. Those who responded spoke of their
increased ability to take in other people’s thoughts and to frame
conversations, to imagine other people’s perspectives and be open to
diverse ways of thinking. Their experience in the major made them
advocates and teachers as well as writers and communicators. And they
made it clear that these are not static skills, but things that stay
with them, always growing, always a resource, a source of pride and
pleasure, enabling fresh discoveries and encounters. What they learned
at UR kept them eager and able to learn new things later. This
contributes to work of myriad sorts, and to people’s ongoing lives as
members of a family and a community.

Those responding to my letter included college and university
professors, primary and secondary school teachers (in English, Music,
Math, Special Education), writers of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry,
book and magazine editors, wide-ranging journalists, as well as authors
of school textbooks and corporate speeches. There include research
librarians at major universities, and successful consultants in
communication, education, security, and business. There are those that
had made their careers in the fields of psychotherapy, neurology,
oncology, dentistry, obstetrics, and medical ethics. Some former
majors are still in school, or have gone back for additional degrees.
There are executives in the fields of advertising, marketing, artificial
intelligence, music, and manufacturing, insurance underwriters,
financial managers, risk analysts and systems analysts, engineers and
software designers. Former majors include musicians, film-makers, and
stay-at-home mothers; there are attorneys who have found their careers
with private law firms and within state and federal government; there
are literary agents, actors, and members of the clergy. One former
major is the former US ambassador to Libya, one directed a center for
the protection of abused children, one edits an important poetry journal
in Los Angeles, another heads a research laboratory for the creative
uses of technology, another started her own company making organic
chocolate. As their stories made clear, the paths that people took
toward these careers were not always simple. There was time taken for
advanced degrees, changes of job, unexpected opportunities and difficult
stumbling-blocks, and strange chances for renewal. What was striking
was a sense of how much, through all of this, things that were part of
their career as English majors stayed with them—specific skills and
habits of mind, forms of imagination, appetites and energies, resources
for the spirit. And everyone had kept on reading and rereading books of
a wild variety, new and old.

What follows is a selection of the letters I received. I will be
varying these and adding responses as time proceeds, and the entire
archive of responses will soon be available online:

COMMENTS FROM FORMER UR ENGLISH MAJORS:

I can't say enough about how my English degree has prepared me for
life after college. At every job or internship interview I go to, the
employers always say how they need someone who can write well. Outside
of the fact that being well read helps you understand people and society
better, the more technical skills of the English degree—close reading,
editing, research, analysis, MLA citation format—has helped me get a
job, and perform better at that job. I've worked for nonprofits, taught
school, and now as I am transitioning to government work, I realize that
the skills my employers value the most—simply the ability to
communicate clearly—were all augmented by my time in my English classes.
You also are more likely to be able to know the plot of almost every
movie that comes out now.

Jamie Frank, ’09, student in the MA program in Public Administration, Cornell University

Often, in law school, and in life generally, I have met English
majors, who I quickly realized majored in English because they could
read and the ability to read is technically the major/only qualification
for a bachelor of arts in literature.... Considering skills that still
resonate: the most obvious answer is that rigorous reading and writing
strengthened my mind, and made me a stronger, more analytical, and
faster reader and writer. However, there is no single tool, in my
professional life more important than the careful attention to
narrative. It is a mistake, in my experience, to approach an
explanation and consider only what is offered. When you read a story,
when you hear testimony, the important questions are not only, what are you telling me? And why are you telling me this? But crucially how you’re telling me most often reveals more than anything written or spoken.

Being an English major in my view can be the foundation for many
interesting, satisfying careers including that of a psychotherapist.
The mysteries, dilemmas and processes of the human condition and human
relationships are much more thoroughly revealed and explored in good
novels, plays and stories than in psychology textbooks and classes.

Sylvia Adler, ’54, LCSW, psychotherapist in private practice

My time as an English major at U of R greatly contributed to what
has been a very rewarding career so far. I didn't decide to become a
teacher until late in my undergraduate career, and I'm glad of that,
because my English degree gave me a stronger foundation in literature
and writing than what I probably would have experienced by pursuing an
English Education degree at a different institution. I have
traditionally taught underprivileged populations, and have had mostly
great success in instilling a love (or at least appreciation for)
literature in students who didn't have one before. I have been able to
pass on some of the passion for literature that was fostered in me by my
professors at the U of R. Because I had a top-notch education that was
also enjoyable, I have always striven to create that same kind of
environment in my classroom. My professors were seldom dry or detached,
and I have found that sometimes all you need to do to inspire others is
to share your own excitement for the subject matter. Plus, being an
English major at the U of R simply made me a better critical thinker.
It taught me to excavate meaning from text, and now I try to do the
same for others.

Angela Rice, ’03, high school and college English teacher

My path to my current dream job was paved by early penury as I
followed my passions, which usually paid more poorly than less-riveting
work. This I definitely ascribe to my studies of literature because I
absorbed the repeated messages of the price and value of personal
transformation that lie at the core of so much storytelling. Whether
they are meditative medieval tomes that warn of the importance
of eschewing the world's riches and values for your soul's elevation or
Flannery O’Connor’s nimbly incisive dismissal of Kerouac’s Dharma Bums:
“Holiness costs, and they're not paying anything.” I definitely credit
(or blame) the literature I absorbed for planting the conviction
that following your internal goals/passions/dreams is likely to cost
you, but certain to be worth it in the end. So I initially worked for
modest pay but maximal development as a medical social worker, manager
of a poison center, technician in a cancer-center laboratory and a
part-time classical announcer at WXXI-FM. I spent years as an editor at
various national magazines and newspapers including Consumer Reports and USA Today.
This was followed by fellowships at the Harvard School of Public
Health, the National Center for Bioethics, Stanford University and three
years as a Research Fellow in Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School.
Today, my award-winning work has been widely published in popular
periodicals and newspapers from Psychology Today to The American Scholar to the New York Times and my books also have picked up national awards including the National Book Critics Circle nonfiction award and PEN award.

At UR I learned to be resourceful and to engage fully in whatever
resources I'm presented, though at the time it was primarily literature,
and now it is competitive analyses, contracts and marketing materials.
I learned to question things, to never stop pursuing the answers I
seek. I learned that there may be multiple answers to a single question
or multiple paths to a single answer. I credit many of my esteemed UR
English Professors for opening my mind to these possibilities. I carry
this with me today, and still thirst for knowledge, to broaden my
contributions to my organization and to my customers.

The skills we acquire as English majors (analysis, critical thinking,
examining theories and ideas from multiple perspectives, asking probing
questions, pursuing topics just because they're interesting, being
creative) qualify us to have almost any kind of career we want... I've
found that when you start thinking about things this way (that is, with
more flexibility and adaptability), you start doing the very things
business/accounting/more “practical” majors do anyway, but you bring
more creativity, passion, wit, voice and insight to the job, so that
you're making change, not just repeating what people have done before
you. The aesthetic sense you develop as an English major will be
invaluable in the work place. It will help you stop following and start
leading. If you're driven and curious, you will pick up the nitty gritty
skills that these other majors learn along the way.

At Illinois, I also made two adjustments in my career, and in some
ways I cannot fully define I think my years at Rochester gave me the
sense of intellectual adventure, the flexibility of mind and the
confidence to make these changes. In addition to the literary and
historical approaches to Shakespeare, I became interested in the
theatrical side of the plays, which led me to study and teach the plays
with a stress on what performance, stage history, adaptations had to
tell us about those wonderfully inexhaustible texts. The second
adjustment involved my Jewish identity. Although at Rochester I more or
less ignored my religious life, in my late 30s and early 40s, I was
drawn to Jewish secular literature and eventually became founder and
director of a program in Jewish studies. To avoid becoming entirely
schizoid, I focused my research on The Merchant of Venice and
still find intriguing projects and problems to work on, love to teach
the play, and often lecture on it to non-academic audiences.

Michael Shapiro, ’59, Shakespeare scholar, Loyola University, Chicago

How has an English major made a difference: As a physician, probably
the most important skill I learned as an English major was an
appreciation of the human experience. I apply the analysis of a
character's motivation, relationships, conflict resolution, and issues
of social class and race on a daily basis at work and in my personal
life. I think the process of reading something like Beowulf,
identifying themes, and explaining the story in modern language helped
me develop as a communicator, such as telling the salient parts of a
story or translating medical jargon to laymen's terms by using analogy
and imagery.

Yvonne Sada, ’01, M.D., Oncologist, currently working on a Master's in Public Health

My English degree has served me well. The ability to gather,
process, organize, and communicate large amounts of information has
proved invaluable. In business, these skills have translated into
survival through creative innovation... In my personal life, my English
training has made me a well-read, respected, informed voice, called upon
for varied leadership roles. As an avid reader, it has allowed me to
“go deep” into novels, non-fiction, theater, and numerous news sources.
And as a parent, it has allowed my wife and me to raise intelligent,
well-informed children.

Robert Miller, ’77, Senior Vice President, National Spinning Co.

Majoring in English has been a huge contributor to both of my career
paths. Obviously, studying literature was critical to my writing
career. But it has also been vital to my work in business. I may be
biased, but I’ve always thought that English is the best preparation for
any career outside of the sciences. Virtually any endeavor—finance,
marketing, law, social services, etc.—involves creating and interpreting
texts or some kind. You are constantly expressing your thoughts,
opinions or discoveries in words, and reading the thoughts, opinions and
discoveries of others. Studying English, in addition to instilling a
deep and lasting appreciation for the glories of literature, teaches you
how to express yourself and how to interpret the expressions of
others. You learn how to seek deeper meanings, subtle differences,
obscure but important themes—and this is precisely what lawyers,
politicians, business executives, Wall Street investors and others do
every day. Critical reading sharpens the mind. And great thoughts are
useless if they cannot be conveyed is a clear, compelling and credible
manner.

Seth Margolis, ’76, novelist and independent branding consultant

I think that the courses I took in the English Department continue to
help me as a lawyer in several ways. First, the process of comparing
and contrasting literature is an excellent foundation for the critical
thinking involved in framing legal issues. I believe that an English
degree also nurtures creative thinking which is especially helpful in
the preparation and execution of jury trials. My course work gave me
the opportunity to write about developing literary themes, character,
archetypes, narration, voice, plot, and historical significance.
Second, I find that in my practice the lawyers that distinguish
themselves are most often able to express themselves orally and in
writing. An English degree provides excellent opportunities to refine
your formal writing skills. I was fortunate to have had professors that
provided valuable insight and made me a better writer.

David B. Frank, criminal lawyer

I was a double major in Health & Society and English, and my
career path has involved multiple settings in health care. For the past
15 years, however, I have fulfilled multiple roles conducting and
directing health services research efforts. In this work, my English
background has been no less than essential, for two major reasons.
First, health services research often involves detailed and meticulous
synthesis of what others are saying about their work, and so a
background in critical literature review and interpretation has proved
to be indispensable. Second, I tell young health professionals and
scientists all the time that great intelligence and breakthrough
research are both useless without the ability to convey to a lay
audience what these breakthroughs are and why they are important. The
greatest scientists of our generation (Einstein, Hawking, etc.) were
great in large part because they could explain the impact of their
theories and observations to anyone, regardless of background or
training. So, in my mind, to succeed in almost any profession, you need
to know how to write.

While I was working in Louisiana, I saw what happened when students
didn't have the same access to literature as I did growing up.
Sometimes in New Orleans it was because there weren't enough books, but
most of the time it was because the schools hadn't given students the
tools to understand the sparse literature they had. For me, teaching
reading wasn't just about my students getting jobs or getting into
college, but more about their being able to effectively
communicate their experiences. They needed to learn to advocate for
themselves. What UR's English department taught me was why those things
matter.

Kristy Doot, ’08, Ph.D. student in Curriculum Design

One of the major jobs for a pastor is to take a Scripture passage,
analyze it historically, theologically, and literally, and then turn it
into a sermon that is relevant to today's world. Our first task in our
Biblical courses was to write an exegesis. This was always fraught with
fear at first, but when I realized that in many ways I had already done
this when I analyzed literature, I was at ease with the process.

Susan Storing Maybeck, ’58, pastor and teacher of divinity

After graduation [from Columbia University Law School], I clerked for
two federal judges, the first in Federal District Court in New York and
the second in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During
these clerkships I constantly wrote. Memos, drafts of opinions, jury
instructions. I debated and discussed and persuaded and failed to
persuade the judges I worked for. The English classes I took at the U
of R proved invaluable during these clerkships as well as in law school,
and not only because of the analytical and persuasive writing skills I
gained. Struggling, for example, with Joyce’s Ulysses or other
works requiring the reader to piece together vast amounts of information
and form some coherence out of the stories of unreliable narrators or
fragmented plotlines, gave me the patience to piece together the
conflicting and incomplete stories underlying every lawsuit, and the
ability to derive pleasure from this fragmentation and narrative
unreliability.... When my second clerkship ended last fall, I took a
position in the litigation department of a law firm in New York. While
classes on Modernism, medieval Celtic literature, and Shakespeare’s late
plays may not seem to have any role to play when I work on lawsuits
between two giant banks, the skills discussed above come into play every
day. My willingness and ability to speak my mind and argue my point of
view with other lawyers were honed in these classes at the U of R. The
way you and the other professors encouraged us to question, and to
speak and articulate our thoughts without worrying whether what we said
was intelligent or profound helped form what I think is one my most
important skills. When a law school professor, a judge, or a partner at
the law firm asks me what I think, I have something to say. I am not
sure I would have the same degree of confidence and curiosity were it
not for the English classes I took.

Michael Cabin, ’06, litigation lawyer

I have to watch a lot of movies and TV for work (and because I'm an
avid consumer of pop culture). Having an English major made Midnight in Paris
extremely enjoyable to watch for all the literary, some might say
nerdy, references. All kidding aside, I think in a society and
professional world that is becoming further and further integrated in
social media and global communications having an English major is one of
the most versatile majors available as an undergrad. I spend a lot of
time now analyzing the best way to communicate ideas to my colleagues
through emails and notes on cuts of our shows as well as how best to
keep our viewers informed and interested in our projects through
Facebook, Twitter, etc. It's surprising how many people I've met along
the way lack a basic ability to communicate clearly and comprehend
written information. All of the films I work on have a thesis that
requires heavy research and analytic skills I developed writing
countless papers during my English major coursework.

Kara Rozansky, ’04, documentary filmmaker

A humanistic education entails empathetic consideration of different
points of view—the conflicting testimonies of witnesses as each one
speaks from his or her own place in the human condition.

Timothy Wright, ’77, high school English teacher, legal secretary

When students ask what they can do with a particular degree, I think
it sometimes betrays a more general approach to life, one which is
always wanting to “get something out of it” rather than enjoy it for
itself, and let it lead where it leads. Joseph Campbell’s dictum to
“follow your bliss” was often followed by his commenting that doing so
would likely lead to poverty at some point, but the serious soul has no
other option. The utilitarian approach which demands everything have a
use or a purpose runs, in my mind, counter to what the humanities (and
the sciences as well) ought to embody: a curiosity, a search for new
ideas, an excitement about possibilities, a willingness to shatter the
old beliefs when better ones arise, and an openness to what is. Right
now I am reading Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna. I am
ghost-writing the memoirs of Remi De Roo, our retired bishop who was the
youngest bishop to attend all four sessions of Vatican II back in the
sixties. He is 88 now and has a lot to say, but English is not his first
language.

Diane Tolomeo, ’70, English Professor, retired, University of Victoria, B.C.

I live in a world of technology and finance. I love telling people I
have a degree in English. They always underestimate me. I manage
a derivatives trading platform for a top-tier custodian bank. This
probably would have sounded pretty dull to my 20-year old self but I
assure you it's anything but. The world is a fabulously complex place
and Wall Street will always challenge your assumptions about how it
works. Like everything else, movies do not do it justice.... Even the
most arduous programming languages are rudimentary when compared to the
range of a human language. I was out of school for a few years before I
fell into technology but I remember being surprised by the visceral
pleasure of writing code. Similar to the way your mind feels when you've
read something exquisite or written a poem. From there, I worked my
way into system design, system architecture, enterprise architecture and
project management. Though I compete for jobs against people with
advanced engineering, computer science degrees and MBA's, I have always
had an edge when it comes to communication. And the deeper I move into
my career the more critical it becomes.

Greg Juros, ’88, financial manager

I learned from [my UR professors] not only to show enthusiasm for my
profession but how to transfer that enthusiasm and caring to those whom I
have dealt with in many countries over the years. They demanded
perfection in writing and rigorous analysis, skills that have certainly
contributed to the diplomatic dispatches I have had to write to State
Department and White House decision-makers. Those cables had to be
written carefully, ensuring proper research and opinion. They also
required the requisite turn of phrase to keep readers interested. So
whatever I have achieved, I attribute a great deal to those group of
exceptional professors who brought characters to life and showed us the
value of rigorous analysis and the joy of literature.

Eugene Cretz, ’72, former United States Ambassador to Libya

I could go on and on, but to answer your second question about what
has stayed with me from my UR studies, I can say unequivocally that the
critical-thinking, writing and study-discipline skills taught to me
(pardon the passive voice!) have made all the difference in my career
and life. While I don't spend much time analyzing books these days, I
constantly rely on and appreciate my education when it comes to
presenting lectures, communicating with the incredible variety
(culturally, academically, age) of students I have on a weekly basis,
writing educational materials and being a (hopefully) thoughtful human
being in a politically charged city. The high standards of work
demonstrated by my professors and peers at UR have been and will always
be a model for how I conduct my own teaching, what I expect from my
students and how I attend to my artistic craft and daily life
activities. Given the various educational environments I inhabit on a
weekly basis, I first-hand understand how high the UR standards are by
comparison and I am grateful for that education and experience.